High performance chemical analysis and imaging in Geneva

Posted on November 26, 2019

The Laboratory of Advance Technology (LTA) in Geneva has launched a new platform for chemical analysis and imaging. Open to both academics and industry, this platform provides access to a nano-TOF SIMS and an XPS, and is the only lab in Switzerland to provide access to both of these complementary techniques. Together, they allow sensitive and quantitative analysis of elemental and molecular composition, of a great variety of materials. The breadth of possible applications, ranging from the study of multilayer electronic devices to organic tissue, make this platform a real asset to research and innovation in diverse fields.

After only a month of activity, many projects are already up and running. TOF-SIMS was used, for example, to studying oxygen isotope ratio in oxygen-18 enriched SrTiO3, determine the source of chemical pollution in an industry wastewater-treatment system, and helped to optimize the fabrication of self-assembled thiol monolayer on gold electrodes. In this case, TOF-SIMS was able to image the film homogeneity on the electrode surface.

Using XPS, we have begun to investigate the chemistry of a novel electrolyte for solid-state Na-ion batteries developed in the DQMP at the University of Geneva. We are currently monitoring the effects of cycling on the electrolyte/electrode interface. We are also using XPS to investigate the relationship between chemical composition, growth conditions and microscopic properties for a family of superconductors, and have several projects studying the chemistry of transition metal dichalcogenides.

For more details on the capabilities of these two instruments in the context of your research or R&D activity, or for more information about how to access this platform, please contact our team.